Sunday, July 8, 2018

John and I have just returned from a road trip out to Memphis. The highlight of our trip was reconnecting with my high school friend, Hallie. I suggested that we take her a plant as a way to spread the love.

For the past several years, I've been working on shaping up two nice boxwoods that John started from cuttings at least fifteen years ago. I chose the one on the left as my gift for Hallie.

Here's the boxwood with new decorative rocks and a trim on the sedum growing on the ground. You can keep cutting sedums back and they will miniaturize nicely.

So we packed up the car and headed to our first stop, Pickwick Landing State Park.

Here is the boxwood, together with its traveling companion, a phantom hydrangea, gazing wistfully out the hotel window.

After two nights in the Pickwick Dam area, we headed on to Memphis, with a stop at Shiloh National Military Park.

Ready to be presented!

We look forward to a photo showing this boxwood happily residing in its next home. Where will it be?

In related news, here is a quick picture of the Topiary Family, as of July 2018.

Left to Right: Vivienne, Babylonia, Tica, Thumblina (in front of Tica), T-Rex. Not pictured: Paulette, who has nicely recovered from a lacebug outbreak. I cut one of T-Rex's cascade arms way back as it was getting straggly. Time for a new direction!

Sunday, May 20, 2018

Just recently, I encountered an interesting convergence of
three separate references to boo hags. The first two references occurred back
in March, over the weekend where John participated in a storytelling symposium.
And what is a storytelling symposium without a ghost story or two? Enter a tale
about a boo hag who, every night, would unwind her skin onto a spindle and fly
away to search for unsuspecting young men.

The second reference was unconnected to the symposium but came
during a conversation where someone brought up the custom, in certain parts of
the country, of painting door and window frames blue, to keep out boo hags
since legend holds these scary critters can’t cross water, or the color blue.Or how you sometimes see, here and there, an
entire house painted blue. The blue keeps the haints out.

I was immediately taken with the term ‘boo hag,’ which I
have not heard much in my life. I’ve heard haint, but not so much boo hag. I
was immediately curious, so started some research—so easy to do in these days
of the internet! More about this in a bit.

So it was with some new knowledge about boo hags that I
watched a movie called Angel Heart (1989), starring Mickey Rourke (during his
hot days) and Lisa Bonet. (Y’all remember Lisa Bonet from The Cosby Show?) I
wasn’t familiar with the movie; just added it to my Netflix queue before I had
done the boo hag research, because it looked interesting. And boy was it ever!
Turns out voodoo was a pretty strong part of the plot, and one scene had Lisa
Bonet’s character doing a ceremonial voodoo dance that was a strong nod toward
a boo hag doing her nightly thing. I wouldn’t have recognized that if I hadn’t
just done a bit of research on boo hags. (BTW, not a movie suitable for young
‘uns.)

Now, for those of you who don’t know what a boo hag is:

From Wikipedia:According to the legend, Boo Hags
are similar to vampires. Unlike vampires, they (usually
female) gain sustenance from a person's breath, as opposed to their blood, by
riding their victims (usually male).[1][2][3]

They have no skin, and thus are
red. In order to be less conspicuous, they will steal a victim's skin and use
it for as long as it holds out, wearing it as one might wear clothing. They
will remove and hide this skin before going riding.

When a hag determines a victim is suitable for
riding, the hag will generally gain access to the home through a small crack,
crevice, or hole. (Places needing a nice coat of blue paint!) The hag will then position themselves over the sleeping
victim, sucking their breath. This act renders the victim helpless, and induces
a deep dream-filled sleep. The hag tends to leave the victim alive, so as to
use them again for their energy. However, if the victim struggles, the hag may
take their skin, leaving the victim to suffer. After taking the victim's energy,
the hag flies off, as they must be in their skin by dawn or be forever trapped
without skin. When the victim awakes, they may feel short of breath, but generally
is only tired.

Turns out the hag folktale is a
world-wide occurrence. Robert Herrick (1591-1674) obviously knew of the hag
story, because he wrote a poem about her.

The HagThe Hag is astride,This night for to ride;The Devill and shee together:Through thick, and through thin,Now out, and then in,Though ne’r so foule be the weather.A Thorn or a BurrShe takes for a Spurre:With a lash of a Bramble she rides now,Through Brakes and through Bryars,O’re Ditches, and Mires,She followes the Spirit that guides now.No Beast, for his food,Dares now range the wood;But husht in his laire he lies lurking:While mischiefs, by these,On Land and on Seas,At noone of Night are working,The storme will arise,And trouble the skies;This night, and more for the wonder,The ghost from the TombAffrighted shall come,Cal’d out by the clap of the Thunder.